García Luna defends war against cartels in Congress

Posted onJanuary 24, 2010|Comments Off on García Luna defends war against cartels in Congress

Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna defended the government’s security program and answered questions for 5-1/2 hours in Congress. He highly praised the role of the Army in fighting the traffickers, but also said that only 7% of reported crimes in Mexico were under federal jurisdiction, and of those, only half were drug-related. The overall 2009 crime rate was 1,657 per 100,000 persons, up 1.2% from 2008 and 10% from 1999. He called on Congress to approve the merger of municipal police forces into 31 state-level forces to improve the effectiveness of the policee. (Universal 1/22, Reforma 1/22)